Atlantic Research (Aerolab) Nike-Apache

By 1961, Thiokol had developed an improved version of its proven TE-82-1 Cajun rocket motor, which was in wide
use in the Nike-Cajun sounding rocket. The new TE-307-2 Apache motor was externally almost
identical to the Cajun, but used a new and more efficient slow-burning propellant grain for a smoother acceleration and
a higher peak altitude.
Like the Cajun, the Apache was never launched by itself, but always used as upper stage in multi-stage
sounding rockets. The primary application was the Nike-Apache, which could lift a typical payload of 36 kg (80 lb)
to about 200 km (125 miles) altitude. The highest Nike-Apache flight reached an apogee of 270 km (168 miles).
Nike-Apache rounds were assembled by Aerolab Inc. (later absorbed into Atlantic Research Corp), which called the
rocket the Argo B-13 in its Argo series of solid-fueled sounding rockets.

Photo: Michigan Technological University

Nike-Apache

The first Nike-Apache was fired by the U.S. Air Force on 17 February 1961. Until August 1966, the USAF launched
more than 50 rockets of that type for aeronomy and ionosphere experiments. The U.S. Army used the rocket as one configuration of its
XMQR-13A Ballistic Missile Target System. Primarily, however, the Nike-Apache was the
standard NASA sounding rocket of the 1960s and 1970s, and until the final flight in September 1978, a total of almost 700
Nike-Apaches had been launched.

Specifications

Note: Data given by several sources show slight variations. Figures given below may therefore be inaccurate!